ABACKUS COLUMN: Tennessee football: Keeping up with the Joneses

By Larry Backus / Sun columnist

There are beau coup subjects for a column in September; however, the University of Tennessee football season is the subject that floats to the top naturally like a force of nature.

Since most Fairfield Glade residents are not Tennessee natives, we may not suffer from the shear adrenaline rush that affects most Tennesseans, precedes the opening kickoff and continues until the football season ends. We may not have decided to buy season tickets all these years at an annual cost equal to a college education. Our cars and home decor may not feature the color orange. Our children may not have had a wedding cake shaped like Leland Stadium. Nevertheless, one cannot live in Tennessee long without becoming a Volunteer fan, even though you might also root for Ohio State, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Note Dame, or another university of fond memories. UT football is BIG in Tennessee and is supported in regal fashion. Tennessee's tromping of nationally top-ten ranked Cal in their home opener lifted a blue funk that settled over the entire state from the direction of the Smoky Mountains. Last year's painful 5 win-6 loss aberration season faded from memory and sports writers gleefully hinted at a possible national title. How big is Volunteer football? Two of three recent articles in the Wall Street Journal reveal the results and the expense of a big-time college football program. The third article forecasts 2006 pre-season prognostications of the college football top-ten.

An August 18 article titled "The Real No.1" was compiled by Sam Walker into a Dow Jones College-Football Success Index. The goal was to identify the best college football player factories in the U.S. based on the 2005 pro-football season by rating pro players from 250 colleges. The complicated formula resulted in alumni success points, draft success points and draft value or rank. You might think UT fans would be proud of Mr. Walker's findings since UT ranked #4. And probably UT fans would be satisfied with a #4 ranking if #5 Ohio State, #6 Michigan, or #11 Notre Dame ranked ahead of UT. However, the top three teams were #1 Florida State, #2 Florida and #3 Georgia. Having ACC or SEC teams ranked above UT mandates a major upgrade in effort by UT.

"Deep in the Pocket" by Russell Adams, another WSJ article, published August 12-13, featured the UT effort to upgrade and remain in the forefront of college football programs. Per game ticket prices based on a full-season ticket plan for upper-bowl seating at UT this year will be $42. Not bad, you might say, since comparable seats are $50 at Michigan, $49 at Oklahoma State and $46 at Iowa. However, the up front annual fee to purchase those tickets is $250 to $2500 at UT, $100 to $2,500 at Oklahoma State, $125 to $500 at Michigan, and $50 to $600 at Iowa. UT football can be more expensive than the professional Tennessee Titans. In comparison the article revealed that the cost of a season ticket in the premier club at the Pro Football Tennessee Titans LP Field is $4,050; a $1,500 one-time fee plus $2,550 for eight games. The cost of a seat in the new UT East Club that features outdoor undercover leather theater seats is $4,000 per year plus a $25,000 donation payable over 5 years or $9,000 per year for the first five years. There are some additional perks at UT that include an adjoining hospitality room with private restrooms, pre- and post-game buffets, leather lounge chairs with football shaped hassocks and posters of UT-great players from the past and present. Why are big time college football programs costing more for fans? Partly because the schools do not want to dip into tuitions to fund their programs, but costs are also sky-rocketing. The Ohio State program last year published a cost of $26 million. The secondary cost of tickets highlights the escalating expense for fans. Last year, according to StubHub.com, a source for secondary ticket sales, their highest priced ticket was $575 for the USC-Notre Dame game. This year the average ticket for the Sept. 9 game between Penn State and Notre Dame was $822.

What will this investment garner for UT fans? No one knows for sure, but hope springs eternal. In an August 26-27 WSJ article titled "Rankings That Get It Right," by Russell Adams, Mr. Adams ranked the publications and bloggers that rank college football looking for the best at this scientifically subjective trade. Mr. Adams chose Lindy's Football Annuals as the best of the current crop of prognosticators based on the fact that they twice in the last five years picked the teams that played for the national title and last year picked 18 of the top 25 teams. Lindy's has a small office and a staff of eight in Birmingham, AL. My thoughts were, "So they missed the two top teams three out of five years, and in what order did they get 18 out of the top 25?" Obviously picking end of season rankings pre-season is neither an exact science nor an easy task. Here are Lindy's top-10 rankings for 2006: 1. Notre Dame; 2. Ohio State; 3. West Virginia; 4. Texas; 5. Florida; 6. USC; 7. Oklahoma; 8. Auburn; 9. California; 10. LSU. UT fans should not be too concerned about the fact that UT is not pre-season ranked in the top 10. Last year they were ranked in the top five in nearly every poll and finished out of the top 25. A reversal of fortune would seem likely based on UT pride alone, and besides, how could prognosticators from Alabama possibly know anything about UT football?

Kudos, gripes, suggestions? E-mail dfbackus@aol.com.

Text Only